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By Cynthia Morgan
Click Here to see a 10.7 KB bitmap image of artwork which goes with this article, entitled:
Mail Order Fulfillment Prioritization
The outlook could be bleak for makers of PIMs and contact management software now that Microsoft has entered the arena. Outlook, the software giant's genre-busting PIM/e-mail/scheduling/groupware application shipping in Office97 suites later this year, could pose major problems for developers in all four categories (see review in "What's Hot!").
The scenario is particularly troublesome for PIM developers, whose apps need close ties to Office. Outlook arrives alongside upgrades from nearly every major player in both markets, including Symantec's Act, NetManage's ECCO, Starfish Software's Sidekick, Lotus Organizer and Janna Contact. "What Microsoft is doing is targeted more at the PIM market than contact management," said Diane Carlini, a spokeswoman for Symantec. "Contact managers and other niche players probably won't be much affected by Outlook. General organizer software, PIMs-the people that build those should be very nervous." When Windows 95 debuted, many utility vendors hoped its built-in but "limited" fax, disk-compression, Internet-access and disk tools would give them a foot in the door with users who had no prior experience with such products. However, most users have been content to stick with whatever ships with Win95. So why will things be different this time?
"Outlook really legitimizes the contact management market," said William M. Tatham, president and CEO of Janna. Since Janna Contact Personal will enhance Outlook's capabilities, "The two definitely can co-exist."
"Microsoft will do a good job of teaching people to store contact information on a computer," Carlini said. "They'll graduate to a more powerful contact manager, and that's where products like Act will come in."
Still, some developers plan to deal with the MS juggernaut by making their programs standard issue on new PCs. "Microsoft has priced Office too high for a lot of PC manufacturers to bundle," said Tatham, "and we're making bundling deals as fast as we can."
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